The development of data processing systems, computers and computer applications has brought about a tremendous expansion of the use of technology and computers in connection with designing and building structures, for example. There are several different computer aided design (CAD) applications for drafting and design of all types of buildings, from small residential types (houses) to the largest commercial and industrial structures (hospitals and factories). CAD has been mainly used for detailed engineering of 3D models and/or 2D drawings of physical components, but it is nowadays used throughout the engineering process from conceptual design and layout of products, trough structural design and manufacturing to maintenance. Furthermore, many CAD applications now offer advanced rendering and animation capabilities so that a designer (i.e. a person using the CAD application), for example, will have a better insight.
There are different regulations and recommendations that should be taken into account when designing a new building and rooms in the building, or when renovating a building. Although some of the regulations and recommendations are in electronic form and obtainable from databases, they are still rather laborious to use. For example, when using ARVI database provided by the Housing Finance Development Center of Finland a designer designing a building targeted to a special group, such as handicapped persons or aging people with a memory disorder, like Alzheimer's disease or dementia, has to select an inhabitant type, then limitations of the inhabitant and after that the room type, and the result of the database query is a list of regulations and recommendations. The designer then interprets and combines the information on the list so that the designer can check that an already modeled room is large enough, but not too large, for the purpose, or uses the information to model the room.